Due to various conditions some people with severe multiple disabilities neither play instruments in music therapy nor react to the music of the therapist. Findings in developmental psychology show that a balanced emotional state is the basis of attentiveness and any positive development. Music therapy based on developmental psychological knowledge aims at activating body awareness, at regulating affects and ultimately at finding one’s own means of expression. This often leads the person with severe multiple disabilities to contact with oneself and subsequently contact with the environment and fellow human beings.
Silke Reimer, PhD, is a certified music therapist and has been working with adults with severe multiple disabilities since 1999. She is a lecturer at the University of the Arts in Berlin. The main focus of her work and her research interests are music therapy based on developmental psychology and affect regulation. She is co-author of the music therapy Assessment of the Quality of Relationship (AQR) and giving workshops on its application aiming to promote treatment fidelity.